Due to several factors, trading activity in Taiwan’s import scrap market is scarce, with Taiwanese mills just concluding sporadic purchases from the US, while Japanese suppliers are only offering premium grades starting from this week. The steel segment performance is weak, while market sources do not expect steel demand to recover under the current conditions. “The market is frozen and may be entering a long bearish trend because of the ongoing problems about environmental regulations on the construction side, and given the seasonal rainy and typhoon summer weather. These are not the only reasons. Cash is flowing into the stock market instead of into steel, and both the Chinese and Asian steel markets are moving downwards,” a source reported. Major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has kept its domestic rebar prices unchanged this week at TWD 17,500/mt ($548/mt) ex-works, with its dollar-based price moving down by $1/mt taking the exchange rate into account. Chinese 5SP grade billet prices have declined further by $10/mt to $375/mt CFR, sources report, but there is no appetite for billets either amid weak rebar demand.
Offer prices for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers to Taiwan have moved to $339-340/mt CFR, from the $343-348/mt CFR levels recorded last week. Actual prices in ex-US deals have moved down by another $5/mt week on week to $335-338/mt CFR. “There is resistance from the seller’s segment. They are unwilling to sell much in this range, but some of them keep offering cargoes at this level,” a Taiwanese source commented.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, ex-US West Coast exporters have started to indicate prices of HMS I/II 80:20 at $320/mt FAS Long Beach port, down $5-8/mt, while some contacts report that they believe these to be the actual market levels though they have yet to be confirmed in actual deals.
Japanese suppliers are still absent from the market and there have been no offers shared for Japanese bulk H1/2 (50:50) scrap with Taiwan this week. Meanwhile, ex-Japan shredded scrap offers to Taiwan are at $380/mt CFR and are considered to be expensive as compared to ex-US containerized scrap offers.
Feng Hsin has kept its scrap procurement prices stable over the past week at TWD 10,200/mt ($320/mt) delivered, up by $1/mt on US dollar basis. Taiwanese sources state that they are following local rebar and import scrap prices after cutting their local scrap purchase quotations by TWD 300/mt last week.
$1 = TWD 31.91
